Undercover: Dual Motives is a tough one to score, because there is so much about the point-and-click adventure that makes you want to love it, yet on the other hand the game feels unfinished and ends far too abruptly to be truly worth the investment. The game is only out in Germany right now, so you have to hope some tweaks will be made before the worldwide launch. Otherwise you are probably better off buying the PC successor 'Undercover: Operation Wintersun'.

Undercover: Dual Motives is a featureless landscape of a game that whilst visually respectable is horribly clichéd with poor writing, shallow stereotypes instead of well formed characters and a largely uninteresting story. You're likely to forget what you're doing between playing sessions, and the game offers no prompts or useful clues to jog your memory. Then again, perhaps this is a game that's better just being forgotten altogether.

Dual Motives emerges as disappointingly standard point-and-click stuff at best, then. Most of the time, however, it hovers beneath that 'achievement'. It's basic and functional, throws up the odd challenge but remains mostly dull throughout, and it's also pretty short. If you like the genre, we thoroughly recommend the better alternatives available. At least with those you're guaranteed to be smiling from start to finish.

All told, it took me a little under eight hours to finish Undercover: Dual Motives, which would have been an acceptable length in a better game. As it is, the meagre storyline, uninspired puzzles, and limited exploration already seem stretched at such a modest play time, and even fans of Operation Wintersun will find this handheld successor a shallow and unrewarding experience. The game does offer some creative uses for its DS-specific features, but sadly even these are handled too poorly to commend wholeheartedly. I’d like nothing more than to encourage more developers to embrace the DS as a viable adventure game platform (not just for ports), and I credit Sproing for being Western pioneers in this regard. However, not even dual motives of my own can make me hold this game up as a positive example of what the genre can be.

So, is Dual Motives something that fans of the genre will appreciate? (I think I’ve already made it clear that casual adventure gamers should steer clear!) If you can cope with laggy, wooden movement, touch-detection that goes from iffy during navigation to horrible in the minigames, a story which doesn’t (even try to) make much sense, minimal music, and conversations bordering on wall-talk, you might find some comfort in this old-school adventure game that sticks to its prehistoric roots. Otherwise, this isn’t worth the time – even though it is a pretty damn short ride.

"Okay John," says you. "Piss off then. Go to prison for treason. Much better you should do that than risk stumbling across a box of Tampax and dying of shame. I hate you, I hate this game and they are not paying me enough to keep playing it. Goodbye."